Module 1: Lesson 1

Introduction to the Uzbek Language

Uzbek is one of the Turkic languages that is considered to be part of the Altaic language family. Standard literary Uzbek belongs to the Qarluq group of the Turkic languages.

About 25 million people speak Uzbek as their native and second language. It is spoken in Uzbekistan, southern Kazakhstan, southern Kyrgyzstan, northern and western Tajikistan, eastern Turkmenistan, and in northern Afghanistan. There are speakers of Uzbek in northwestern China, Russia, Turkey, and the USA.

In Uzbekistan, the Uzbek alphabet was changed at least five times during the last 80 years. The Arabic script was used until 1929. The Latin alphabet was introduced in 1929, and in 1934 there were changes to the Latin alphabet. In 1940 the Uzbeks started to use the Cyrillic alphabet. In 1989 Uzbek became the official language of the Republic of Uzbekistan. In 1993 the new Latin alphabet was introduced and in 1995 there were some changes made in alphabet again. Currently in Uzbekistan, the Latin script is used mainly in school textbooks, university undergraduate textbooks, the Internet, in newspaper headlines, and in some official papers. Cyrillic is used in university graduate textbooks, in the content in newspapers below the headlines, and in some official/non-official papers.

Today, the following scripts are used by Uzbek speakers around the world: